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Thursday, 3 August 2017

Think of
one big hotel brand in the Nordics that has international standards. It is very
hard to find a Nordic hotel brand in the same category as InterContinental
Hotel Group, Ritz Carlton Group, Marriott Group, Starwood Hotel Group, Hilton
Group or Accor Hotel Group. Almost all hotel chains in the Nordics are either
super boring, sad cheap hotel brands or old and dusty. There are some small
boutique hotel chains that have put down an effort that stands out but you
cannot compare these hotels with the big league of international hotel groups.

Well I was
rather wrong, there is one brand that stands out and that tries to place
themselves on the top league of international standards and have many
possibilities to roll it out to an international market (currently only
operating in the Nordics today). The brand I am writing about is: Nordic Choice
Hotel Group. Under the brand there are several levels; Clarion, Quality,
Comfort and some independent hotels such as At Six (previous review). However
the sad thing is that it is part of a much larger hotel group calls Choice
Hotels which is an US company. To my knowledge Nordic Choice Hotels makes their hotels much better in standard and service than the mohter company. This means that the owner Petter Stordalen has
purchased the rights to only use the brand Choice to operate in the Nordics. I just had to check this out.

All in all
Nordic Choice Hotel Group has the rumor to have the best brand in the Nordics
when it comes to hotels so me and my family decided to take one week of this
year holiday to review 3 Clarion hotels around Sweden.

The hotels
that we stayed at were:

Clarion
Malmö Live, Malmö Sweden

Clarion
Grand Hotel, Helsingborg Sweden

Clarion
Sign, Stockholm Sweden

These are
the reviews:

Clarion
Malmö Live

This hotel
has everything that a business traveler or a family oriented holiday needs. The
hotel is made with true international standards with large open spaces, great
conference section and a superb congress hall. The gym is fantastic and I
enjoyed the breakfast very much. The staff is very professional and friendly
and they have a roof top skybar and restaurant on the 25th floor overlooking
Denmark and the city of Malmö.

Our family
got a great family suite with two rooms and a great view over Malmö. The height
of the ceiling was fantastic although some detailed cleaning could be improved
as in most hotels these days.

We highly
recommend this hotel for food and beverage, drinks, the room quality are good
and staff is great.

Final
Grade: 4 out of 5

Clarion
Grand Hotel

The city of
Helsingborg is an expanding and a very fun small town in the south of Sweden.
When we arrived to this hotel you could feel the pulse of many and that this
hotel most likely is fully booked. The service and staff is friendly and very
helpful which is the strong point of this hotel. The rooms are designed with a
classical ambiance since its location and property. The restaurant Kitchen and
Table that follows all Clarion Hotels are good in standard and we enjoyed it as
we always do. However the cocktails in this hotel is not in good standards. If
you were to compare the drinks with Malmö Live, Clarion Grand Hotel is far
behind in quality and execution. The bartender even asked me if the cocktail
was to satisfaction and I told them to take a course in Malmö Live because this
was not the same standard and I did not get any response. If you are at a
restaurant and the food tastes bad or the meat is not prepared properly the
chef sends out a new one. I think it goes the same way when it comes to
cocktails and drinks, or am I wrong?

The
breakfast was of ok standard but I would say that Malmö Live still delivers
better. I ordered omelets for me and my wife and we got it served burnet to
sh*t. I kid you not it was toasted. I told the waiter and she just laughed and
walked away.

Overall the
hotel was good but the food and beverage is a bad number at this hotel.

Final
Grade: 2,5 out of 5

Clarion
Sign, Stockholm Sweden

As always
Stockholm delivers and we loved this congress/hotel/spa experience. It is
fantastic for kids to have a roof top pool to play in and a great spa for
massage and relax. The restaurants is great and the service is superb. We loved
the breakfast and brunch at this hotel since they have a lot of programs for
kids and family.

The rooms
are a bit boring and the interior in the rest of the hotel is a bit outdated
however this is not an issue since the staff is great. But if you are to
compare with Malmö Live which is our favorite the grade has to be lower.